Human Rights: Abidjan Peace Agreement

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Human Rights: Abidjan Peace Agreement

Implementations

Human Rights – 1996

An independent National Commission on Human Rights was not established. None of the above mentioned reforms related to the improvement of human rights conditions were undertaken in 1996. Amnesty International reports that one week after the peace agreement was signed by the Government of Sierra Leone and the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), more than 150 civilians were killed in the north of the country.1

  1. “Amnesty Says Sierra Leone Violence Persists Despite Peace Pact,” Africa News, December 12, 1996.

Human Rights – 1997

In January 1997, two months after the peace accord was signed, the SLPP government and Kamajors launched attacks against RUF units in northern Kailahun in violation of the accord. Keen argues that the continued actions of the Kamajors (which also included executions of RUF combatants that attempted to resettle in their home villages) was one of the main reasons for why the RUF rejected the 1996 accord and sided with the AFRC in May 1997.1 In April of 1997, RUF members were engaged in hostage taking.2

In May of 1997, Major Johnny Paul Koroma and his soldiers formed an alliance with RUF troops and toppled Sierra Leone’s government. President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah fled into Guinea.3

  1. David Keen, Conflict and Collusion in Sierra Leone (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005),193-197.
  2. “Sierra Leone; Amnesty Calls on RUF to Release Hostages,” Africa News, April 30, 1997.
  3. “Sierra Leone coup leader claims power,” The Independent (London), May 26, 1997, 13.

Human Rights – 1998

In 1998, the former government ousted the RUF/AFRC government. RUF and the former government returned to full scale civil war in 1998.1

Coding for this case ceased on December 31, 1998.

  1. “Uppsala Conflict Data Program,” Uppsala University Department of Peace and Conflict Research, accessed June 3, 2011, www.ucdp.uu.se/database.